Canon Patent Hints a Giant Variable Touchscreen in Our Future

Ok, first, let’s get the whole patents don’t necessarily equal production. Companies have massive patent portfolios as their engineers sit around thinking shit up. Thanks, Armageddon. That line will never get old. Canon is one of those companies. Hell, if we went by patents, we’d all be in flying cars.

Canon’s latest patent is for a gigantic touchscreen which will flip up on the arm on the backside of a 1DX-like camera. Damn Canon, we all know vlogging is huge, but this is next level and more than a bit cumbersome looking. The entire back of the camera becomes the screen, and it looks – via the diagrams – destined to get in the way if you decide to mount a flash or a mic on your camera body.

Luckily it does fold to the side, but you can imagine this amount of flipping up and turning doesn’t scream durability. There’s also the diagram of the poor guy with the camera held vertically and the giant screen swiveled past the top of his head.

An area of concern for users is the screen seems to hide camera controls unless it’s flipped out. Unless Canon is suddenly making screens on par with smartphones, that’s a giant no from a UX perspective. Just put the vari-angle on 1DX and other pro-level cameras.

Some of the more snarkier comments have pegged it as Canon’s selfie mode. They joke, but would it surprise you? Though a selfie with a 1DX Mark II? You could skip arm day at the gym.

What do you think? Canon securing a patent for the hell of it or something we will see in an upcoming DSLR or mirrorless camera?

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